The English Rose featuring David Austin

We depart by coach from London, Reading and Swindon, stopping en route for refreshments (not included). This afternoon we visit Spetchley Park Gardens, which has been home to the Berkeley family for over 400 years and successive generations have lovingly collected rare plants, shrubs and trees from around the world, creating a wondrous garden of many rooms and vistas that appeal to all ages and tastes. The fantastic vistas and stunning architecture inspired Edward Elgar to write one of his great compositions from the gardener’s cottage. At this time of year there is large selection of roses and what could be more quintessentially English than a combination of roses and Elgar?

We continue to our comfortable accommodation at the Haughton Hall Hotel near Shifnal, where a welcome drink is served followed by dinner.

Meals include: Dinner

Hotel: Haughton Hall Hotel, Shifnal

After breakfast we travel to Albrighton for a special visit to David Austin Roses. Tea and coffee and a selection of delicious pastries is served in the marquee on arrival. After a welcome and introduction from our guide we depart on a tour of the rose gardens, where hundreds of different varieties and cultivars are displayed in a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour and a heavenly cloud of fragrance. Following the tour there is time to explore the gardens at your own pace and visit the gift shop and plant centre, perhaps buying one or two plants or making notes of others to buy online later.

Following our visit here we transfer to Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton, where there will be an opportunity for lunch on arrival (not included). In 1937, local Liberal MP, Geoffrey Mander, donated the house to the National Trust after being left it by his father. The 17 acre garden was designed by Alfred Parsons and Thomas Mawson, with the main framework consisting of large trees and an eye-catching octagonal arbour hung with clematis and roses in the centre of the rose garden. Roses were the pinnacle of an Arts & Crafts garden, and the English rose was a symbol of Tudor and Medieval England and spoke of the nostalgia of this idyllic past. A less formal area has a pool, shrubs and rhododendrons. In addition there are two rows of yews, herbaceous borders and beds containing plants from gardens of famous authors such as Tennyson and Dickens.

We return to our hotel where dinner will be served in the evening.

Meals include: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel: Haughton Hall Hotel, Shifnal

Following breakfast we depart for a visit to the garden at Wollerton Old Hall. Although there has probably been a garden here for 550 years, the present garden was started by John and Lesley Jenkins in August 1984. It is a three acre plantsman's garden developed around a 16th Century house. Strong formal design has created many separate gardens each with its own character. It features intensive cultivation of perennials using planting combinations with an emphasis on colour and form, as well as many rare and unusual plants.

We then continue to Hodnet Hall, whose gardens are ringed with ancient trees protecting more delicate species in the seclusion of the glens and parklands. In addition to well-kept beds of hybrid tea roses there is a traditional walled kitchen garden with many varieties of fruit and vegetables and forest trees which provide a wonderful backdrop for the formal gardens. There is a Berberis darwini in the garden brought back by Charles Darwin on his famous voyage of discovery on the Beagle in 1835 and there are also a series of garden ponds, marshes, dams, waterfalls and streams, which are home to some lovely black swans.

Afterwards, we head back to our hotel in time for dinner.

Meals include: Breakfast, Dinner

Hotel: Haughton Hall Hotel, Shifnal

After breakfast we check out of the hotel but we have time for two more visits before we return home.

The eight acres of garden and park at Morton Hall combine historic and new features in a highly aesthetic fashion providing the backdrop for a collection of nearly a thousand plant varieties. A gateway leads on to the ‘impressionistic’ South Garden, brimming with roses, clematis and herbaceous planting in soft pastels.

Our final port of call is Coughton Court, home of the Throckmortons, which has been presented with the Award of Garden Excellence by the World Federation of Rose Societies and boasts over 75 different varieties of Rose, beautifully grown in mixed borders in the walled garden. Take time to enjoy the colours and breathe in the scent of our prickly friends before we head for home.

Arrival back at our original departure point is expected in the late afternoon and early evening.

Meals include: Breakfast